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Monday, August 09, 2010

Well, there ain't much edu-kaytin' going on....

Today is my birthday! Yes, I am still the young, luscious lady I always was *grinning broadly here!*, just another year has whizzed by to be etched onto the bedpost. 35 years young and happy, that's all there is to it :)

I'm afraid, although this is a home-education blog, I am going to struggle to talk about any learning today. We haven't touched the workbooks. We haven't opened the textbooks. We haven't even sat at the table with our paper and pencils. Shocking. I hang my head in shame. I'm clearly failing badly at this home-education malarkey.

What we have done though, is had a lovely fantastic day AND enjoyed each others company. I'm not sure it gets much better than that.

Firstly, it's my birthday. Have I said that already? :) I have been spoilt and showered with love (and gifts) from family and friends. My children took themselves off to the shops to buy teabags (at my request), and came home with the said much needed teabags, but also with arms filled with goodies for me (paid for out of their own funds I hasten to add!) Two boxes of chocolates, an eye liner in a gorgeous Emerald green colour, and a cupcake design make up bag. Now, of course, that's just shopping isn't it? Albeit with a great deal of thoughtfulness thrown in for good measure. But what it also demonstrated to me (not for the first time), is that my children are fully capable of going to the correct shops for their wants and needs, navigating their way there including crossing roads safely, working out the cost of items, counting their money and setting budgets, thinking of others, choosing suitable presents, and independently buying things without my influence.

No actual learning took place though sadly...

After many smiles and thank yous (from me) and hugs and happy birthday singing (from them), we sat in the lounge together and played with our new family member now known as Harry. Max - in reply to your last comment on the previous post - Max was actually a name on our shortlist. We thought this one looked more like a Harry though (?? lol), but will definitely keep Max on the list for our next kitty *grin*.

You can see why we are finding the little fella absolutely irresistible huh? Just look at these little pink paws...

Playing with him and laughing at his antics led to discussions about how we have to care for our animals, how much they rely on us, and how we are responsible for their welfare as we have chosen to offer them a home. This led to talking about diets, and the values of good nutrition. This in turn led to talking about cow's milk, and why it is recommended that cats don't have it - even though the old iconic vision of a cat with a saucer of milk is still very much in use. We talked about our other pets and their nutritional and daily care needs - such as dogs needing exercise, rabbits needing cages cleaned and time in their run, birds needing free-flight time in a safe environment etc. We talked about carnivores and herbivores and their different needs and teeth structures. We discussed stomach sizes, and looked into the size of a human stomach in comparison to that of some animals - and how the digestive system worked.

Amazing how much knowledge may be gained from playing with a cat, but obviously no learning as we are not in a classroom...

I got a phone call to ask me to unlock a nearby home to let the electric meter man in as he needed to reset the meter. I went off and did that, returning home to a barrage of questions. Why do we have such things as meters? How do they work? What do they look like? How do we get electricity into our homes? Where does it come from? How much do we have to pay for it? Who do we have to pay? How do we pay bills? Where do we get our money from? ... you get the idea.

Yet still no learning could be deemed as taking place could it? *sigh*

We sat together and watched a documentary about Jelly Fish. Amazing creatures, and lots of questions were asked and researched - ranging from various species, size comparisons, movement capabilities, geographical locations, food, life span, etc.

Just a shame I didn't get the children to write all about it - then they may have learnt something.... ho hum.

The children went off to make my birthday cake. No recipe from a book to follow - Chelsea chose to make her own tweaked recipe for Coconut and Raisin cake. Obviously they had to sort out the ingredients, weigh them, organise the tasks so they each had a job to do (thus work as a team), find the correct tin size, set the oven temperature, check the clock for cooking times, oh and do all the washing up afterwards (after licking clean the spoons and bowls of course!)....

But not a learning opportunity in sight! *rolls eyes*

We went out for a lovely meal over at the nearest pub to celebrate my birthday. I won't say much about it other than the food was delicious and the children were wonderful. We came out of the pub with smiles and very full bellies :)

On returning home we set about further introductions with Kira (mad dog), and Harry (mad dog hating kitten). Kira is only curious, but Harry hates her, hissing madly every time she enters the room. Tonight we did progress to both animals being in the same room together, AND on the floor without a problem. Kira just went to sleep. Harry just sat upright staring, wide-eyed and in disgust, at the furry intruder. This led to a conversation about body language, and how our facial expressions and body language sometimes say far more (and often very different) things to our verbal speech. We talked about eye-contact, animals fight or flight responses, how some animals change colour when threatened, and some puff themselves up to appear bigger and more frightening. You get the idea.

I'm sad to say that it was, upon reflection, an absolute waste of a home-educating day. But, that's ok, I don't have to feel bad that no 'learning' took place, it is my birthday and the school holidays after all - my children are allowed to just waste their time doing nothing at home aren't they?

We can always try to learn something tomorrow....

Meanwhile, I shall sit and write out 100 lines.

"I must get my children to learn, I must get my children to learn, I must get my children to learn...."

Have just found your blog and am adding it to my list as it's great! Happy belated Birthday, shame you didn't get any education done, I hope you've sharpened your chalk and doubled the children's homework to compensate! ;)

Look forward to seeing what else you get up to and am very glad to find another home edding family that enjoy workbooks!